A group of happy winegeeks got together at les Sans Culottes on the Upper East Side last night for Pauillac Fest. A nice group, and a very pleasant evening. Overall the wines showed quite well. At the end of the evening we voted for WOTN , based on 1st, 2nd 3rd votes from each person the ’95 Pichon Lalande led: .

1975 Haut-Bages Liberal
A little barnyardy (actually, I originally forgot to note what bottle this was, and told tablemates this '82 Pontet Canet was very different than others I'd had! ). Pleasant enough mature claret. B/B-

1975 Grand Puy Ducasse
This didn't do a lot for me, but no notes or real clear memories.

1996 Duhart Milon
Opens after a while. Nice medium bodied claret with light vanilla & graphite notes over dark berry fruit. Overshadowed by the P-Baron and L-Bages, but I'd be very happy to have this on my dinner table with some roast beef. B+

1996 Pichon Baron
A little tight, but lush cassis fruit and mocha/leadpencil notes over a muscular frame. I saved a bit till end of night when it was really singing. Despite the lushness of the fruit there's a refreshing acidity to make this very foodfriendly, A-/A

2000 Batailley
Weird, with a sharp acidity and a stemmy greeness. Someone calls this soft, not in my glass. C+

2001 Lafaurie Peyraguey
OK, infanticide, but this is stunning. Shimmering waves of peach, apricot, and tangerines, with caramel and honey notes. Intense, long finish, A/A-

Fun night with a good crew.

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.

Oops, should have pointed that out! Finally landing a few P-L 1995 made me think of this tasting and these are the only notes I could find from it (another site's archives were lost when moving to a new URL and service).